Sales people who use social media to engage and share information about their products or services have more success at closing deals than sales people who don’t engage prospects via social media. This doesn’t mean that sales people need to spend hours working social media networks, posting one message, video or image after another.
Posting content to social media accounts is a communications or content specialist’s job. Besides, to be effective, sales people need to focus on speaking with prospects, introducing new products or services to them as well as addressing questions or concerns they may have. Spending time working social media accounts chews away at time sales people have to complete these crucial action steps, causing sales people to lose business sales.
Another deliverable that eats up time sales people should be using to speak with prospects is scheduling appointments. Relief can come from overworking customer service associates, demanding that they put in 10 or more hours a day calling business prospects and scheduling one sales meeting after another.
However, this alternative can backfire. It’s the option that pushes customer sales associates to competitors, as associates seek to gain a more balanced work schedule. A better, more effective alternative is to sign contracts to use appointment setting software. Appointment setting is when companies like Intelliverse call up potential leads and set up appointments for their clients, making it hassle free for their clients to get new leads.
Appointment setting software can free up two or more hours a day for sales people. Training on the software is delivered by the same companies that sales people buy the software from. However, top appointment setting software companies don’t stop at providing a one-time training. They stay connected to sales people, reaching out to them at least once a month to check on how well they are understanding the software’s tools.
Sales people should come prepared to discuss challenges that they may have had with the automated scheduling. They should also come prepared to ask appointment setting software firms about shortcuts they can take to save even more time while using the software. This is the very type of training that can raise sales people’s confidence, making it easier for them to gain new techniques to close more sales.
Whether employers realize it or not, even the most productive sales people benefit from receiving ongoing training. Inc. says, “Success meeting sales quotas was positively correlated with the degree to which sales training is integrated with the corporate learning function. The more integrated the sales training, the greater the success in meeting sales quotas. Simply put, integration is related to more sales.”
Additionally, “New start-ups as well as established firms are thinking of new and creative ways to leverage technology to train their sales people.” It’s a plus when training that can be conducted virtually is combined with appointment setting software that saves sales people and their assistants valuable time, freeing them up from having to call prospects.
Sources:
http://www.intelliverse.com/
http://www.inc.com/guides/201105/new-tools-for-sales-training.html
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